Green Party TDs (Ciarán Cuffe furthest to right) leave the government buildings to announce they were pulling plug on coalition. Photograph; Peter Muhly/AFP

It's been one heck of a week.

Brian Cowen's decision to resign as leader of Fianna Fáil, and continue on as taoiseach on Saturday afternoon left our party in an impossible situation. Now he says he will continue as taoiseach even though the government may only be days away from dissolution.

Cowen had given John Gormley, the Green party leader, a call to advise him of his decision to resign just 15 minutes before he went on national television to make his announcement. I was halfway up a mountain on Saturday afternoon when the texts started coming in that he was about to resign. Sunday marked the end of a difficult and challenging four years for the Irish Green party's participation in government.

Our parliamentary party met at 11.30am in government buildings and discussed the pros and cons of staying on, or leaving government and forcing an earlier election than Fianna Fáil had planned.

Throughout Ireland's economic difficulties which culminated in the intervention of the IMF/EU in November, we had argued that tough and firm policies were required to get us through the recession.

Even as Fianna Fáil wrestled with its internal power struggles we had argued that we were staying in government to put the country first and get us through these economic challenges.

The Green party's focus on renewable energy, proper planning, and smarter travel has produced "green collar" jobs, but the challenge has been staying in power with a coalition partner that is in crisis as its popularity has plummeted.

For several hours on Sunday morning, we debated the options. It wasn't as easy as you might think. Some of my colleagues felt we should have left government months ago; others felt we should stay on for a few weeks more.

After 29 years in the Green party, I feel we have achieved more over the last four years in government than in the previous 25, but in light of the disarray our coalition partner is now in, it was clear to us that the time had come to go.

By 3pm our letters of resignation had been written, courtesy calls to our coalition partner were made, and at 3.30pm we walked across the road to the Merrion Hotel to announce our decision to leave government. It has already been a rollercoaster week, starting with Cowen's decision to put his own leadership to the vote in a secret ballot on Tuesday which he won.

But things started to change on Wednesday when the controversial health minister Mary Harney resigned.

By the time I woke up on Thursday four more ministers has resigned. There had been no communication of this to the Green party. None of this had been signed off by John Gormley.

It wasn't the first time there had been a lack of consultation. We are used to coalitions over here in Ireland, but a key to their success is clear communication between the partners in government when significant decisions have to be made, something that was lacking in the last week and during the financial tumult in November

On Thursday morning our party's six TDs (MPs) and three senators met to discuss what we would do.

The mood was solemn. Back in November, when negotiations were initiated with the EU and IMF to provide a loan to Ireland, we said that we would leave government once four key decisions were made: securing the IMF loan; agreeing a four-year financial recovery programme; passing the budget; and approving the finance bill to accompany the budgetary decisions.

Only the finance bill remains to be passed and we hope this can be achieved by Friday and then a new date for a general election can be called.

We are still anxious to see the finance bill passed, and will support the bill from the opposition benches. After a tumultuous four years for Ireland during which the economy experienced a dramatic and deep recession, we need an election.

The green issues are as important as ever, and I strongly believe thatthe recovery can only happen through the smart green growth policiesthat my party has been pursuing in government, but it is now time forthe Irish people to decide.

Ciarán Cuffe is a Green party member of the Irish parliament whoresigned from his position as minister of state with responsibilityfor planning and climate change on 23 January